


Down In The Woods

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Mythological Creatures Alphabet Challenge [2]
Category: Bring Me The Horizon, You Me At Six
Genre: Dan almost drowns, Gen, Oli's a harbinger of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 09:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2019978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While camping, Dan and Josh find a lost dog that turns out to be a harbinger of death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down In The Woods

**Author's Note:**

> B is for Black Dog. This started out as something completely different, but I was struggling massively with it. So I went back and did more research on the myth of the Black Dog, and realised that it was nothing like what I'd written, so I went back and redid it, and this was the result. I still have the original, so I may go back and finish it and post it as an unrelated oneshot.

It starts when they’re camping in the Yorkshire Dales. Josh and Dan are wandering through the trees, looking for decent firewood, when Dan freezes, throwing his arm out to make Josh stop. Before Josh can ask what’s happening, Dan starts talking very softly and seemingly calmly.

“Don’t move, don’t talk too loudly, don’t make any sudden movements. There’s a very large, wild looking dog just up ahead, and it’s watching us. Just stay still, and stay calm, and hopefully, it’ll move on without feeling threatened,” he coaches, and Josh slowly turns his head to look at the large, black, scraggly looking dog that’s standing on the path up ahead, watching them curiously, it’s head cocked to the side.

After another minute or so, the dog moves towards them, slowly and calmly, as though it’s doing the same thing they are, avoiding making them feel threatened. It sniffs around their legs curiously for a while, then pads away silently into the trees. They both sigh in relief, then grab whatever half decent wood they can find around them, and hurry back to camp. None of the others believe them about the dog, until about half nine that evening. They’re eating sausages, chatting away happily, when Max freezes, his eyes wide in fear. The four of them turn to see what’s spooked him, to find the dog from earlier creeping towards them from the trees, a hungry look on its face.

“I really don’t like the way it’s looking at me,” Max whimpers, and Dan rolls his eyes.

“He’s not looking at you, he’s looking at your plate,” he corrects him, then takes a sausage from his own plate and holds it out to the dog. “Here you go, boy, you must be starving, huh?” He chatters to the dog as he skitters over and gently takes the food from Dan, backing away quickly to hide behind Josh and Dan’s tent as he eats. 

When he creeps back out, his eyes widen in surprise as he sees that Dan’s filled a plate with the spare sausages that none of them plan on eating, and Dan sits it on the floor as the dog comes back over to him. It nudges his arm with its muzzle in thanks as it quickly demolishes the food. After that, it seems more comfortable around them, and Dan’s happy to see that his peace offering worked as the dog settles down at his feet, even rolling over to let Josh rub his belly. It’s been lying at Dan’s feet, sleeping happily for an hour or so, when a voice through the trees makes its head shoot up, and its tail thump happily against the ground.

“Hades! Hades, where the fuck are you?!” The dog, Hades, apparently, barks back loudly in reply, and they seem to play Marco Polo for a few minutes, the guy shouting the dog’s name, and the dog barking in reply, until he emerges from the trees, a look of relief on his face as he spots his dog, looking filthy, but no worse for wear.

He strides over to the dog, checking him over as he thanks the five of them profusely, then sits on the ground and accepts the tea Chris offers him. As he sips from the travel mug Matt hands him, the guy, Tom, explains how he’s been camping with his friends a few miles away for the past two weeks, and his dog, Hades, had ran after a rabbit three days before, and hadn’t come back. He stays with them a few more minutes, finishing his tea and thanking them a few more times, before he says goodbye and wanders into the trees, Hades trotting obediently at his heels.

Once they’re far enough into the trees that he’s sure they won’t be seen, ‘Hades’ switches back to his usual form, a tall, gangly guy.

“I’m wondering if I should have told those guys that one of them is going to die soon,” Tom muses, and his brother snorts.

“Probably a good thing you didn’t, since that wasn’t why I was with them,” he tells him. When Oliver turned 21, he’d become what he is now, a Black Dog, a harbinger of death. Apparently, it’s not the way the myths go. It’s a hereditary thing, humans that become Black Dog’s, and can still sense death in human form. He knows that, when Tom turns 21 in a few weeks time, it’ll be the same for him.

“Then why were you with them? One of them mentioned that they saw you in the woods earlier, so it seems like you’re stalking them, the way you do with someone that’s close to death,” Tom asks, and Oli shrugs.

“I can sense something, but not death, though it’s similar, so I think it might be a near death experience. Either way, I’m going to keep a close eye on them,” he explains, and Tom nods in understanding.

True to his word, Oli, as Hades, watches the group of five from afar for the next few days, until his premonition comes true. He follows Dan down to the river, and lies in the long grass to watch as Dan strips to his underwear and jumps into the river. Things go fine for a while, Dan’s clearly a strong swimmer, but when he starts swimming towards the bank to get out, he seems to get his foot caught on something. As soon as Oli sees him struggling, he jumps up and runs towards the bank, barking as loud as he can to catch someone’s attention as he jumps into the water, swimming as fast as he can towards a quickly weakening Dan.

Once he gets to him, he dives under the water, immediately spots the plant that Dan’s foot is caught on, and bites through it easily, freeing him. When he surfaces again, Dan clings to him, murmuring thanks into his fur as they swim together back to the bank, where all four of Dan’s friends, Tom, and Oli’s friend Matt are waiting, clearly having heard him bark. The six of them help Dan haul himself onto the grass as Oli scrabbles up easily, and they sit watching worriedly as Dan lies on his side, breathing harshly and coughing.

Once he seems to be alright, Matt, who they tend to address by his last name, Nicholls, turns to Tom.

“This was what he was talking about, then?” He asks softly, but the five of them still hear him.

“What who was talking about?” Josh demands, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Tom looks to Oli for permission, and sighs when he gets the nod.

“Hades isn’t my dog, he’s my brother. His name’s really Oliver, and he’s a Black Dog, a harbinger of death,” he explains, and the five of them seem sceptical, but Dan seems to accept it quickly.

“If I was supposed to die, then why did he save me?” He asks, ignoring his friends’ squawks at the mention of his death. Tom just looks to Oli expectantly, and Oli sighs as he switches back to human form.

“You weren’t supposed to die, you were supposed to almost die. At least, that’s what I interpreted the almost-but-not-quite sense of death that I felt around you,” he explains, and the five of them seem to calm down at that, despite just seeing a dog turn into a man.

The first time Josh sees Oli again after that, watching them in dog form from a street corner, he panics, but Oli only wags his tail in reassurance, and trots away. After the third time, Josh realises the truth, Oli’s gotten attached to them, and he’s just checking on them, to make sure they’re alright. So much for Black Dogs being scary.


End file.
